Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

Jerusalem is close in proximity to the town of Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. These three individuals were very good friends with the Savior and I believe that he even stayed with them at their home many times on his journeys. We know that Jesus conversed with the young lawyer and gave the parable of the Good Samaritan in Jerusalem, so afterwards it makes sense that Jesus would have left there and gone somewhere else to continue his ministry, and “he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.” We have to remember that Jesus would have brought with him a large entourage, consisting of at least the twelve apostles, and probably many other disciple followers. When she invited the Savior into her home, she was accepting the responsibility for the comfort and welfare of not only Jesus, but his whole following. It’s daunting to imagine caring for the Savior alone, even though he wasn’t high maintenance,...

Now let’s put ourselves in to the place of the injured man. Because we aren’t given hardly any information on this guy, it is easy for any and all of us to identify with him. We don’t know why he was leaving Jerusalem, we don’t know where he was going, we don’t know if he was a good or evil man, but he represents all of us. We all came from the same place (the pre-mortal world) and we’re all doing to the same place (the spirit world) and we are all both good and evil. I think that I relate to the injured man the most because I feel so helpless and tired so much of the time. We have all been hurt by people and suffered injuries outside of our control, so that’s part of why we are unable to move, lying on the ground, but a big part of why we are so incapacitated is because of our own downfalls. We are all beaten down by our own poor choices, our own sins, and so much of the time we are unable to move forward on our journey because we have so much ...

T here was a really good stake conference once where one of the speakers dissected the parable of the Good Samaritan by having us imagine ourselves being each of the characters. When evaluating this story, the question comes up, who do I most identify with? Most of us probably can best appreciate that this story is supposed to put us in the place of the Good Samaritan, with the lesson to do good to others, but I’ve thought about myself in the roles of each of the other people as well. I can’t remember all of what was said, but it at least got me thinking about the idea that we aren’t just supposed to be the one rendering service but that we are also other characters as well. The most readily identifiable character is in fact the good Samaritan who is described by the Savior as, “a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on ...

This poor guy, who we don’t know very much about, is robbed, beaten and left for dead along the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. We’ve already discussed who he might be, way this was a dangerous stretch of highway, and what this man could have possibly gained spiritually by experiencing this trial. While he was thus laying, presumably unconscious, “by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.” Interestingly, an article posted on Bible.org reminds us that this parable comes right after Jesus prayed thanking God “that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes.” By this interpretation, the priest and Levite would be the “wise and intelligent” because they are supposed to be the experts on religious law, where as the Samaritan was a “babe” when it came to the ancient Jewish laws, yet the “babe” was the one wh...

I t’s unclear whether or not the lawyer who speaks to Jesus next is among the returning seventy or if this is another place and time away from the testimony meeting like gathering we considered yesterday. I assumed that the lawyer who poses this question is doing so with malicious intent, trying to trick the Savior, but rereading it here, it seems possible that the lawyer was asking the question genuinely wanting to know the answer. A “certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” I guess with the term “tempted” in there, it speaks to the negative nature of his intentions. Jesus answers, “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” This is an interesting question because at this point I would think that clearly the ten commandments would have been the first to anyone’s mind, being the governing law of the times. But then again, the Pharisees had enacted over 600+ smaller laws that co...

Jesus commissions the Seventy to depart on their missions and the next verse we hear that they returned, and they were filled “with joy” because of their successes and the power that they had learned to yield while on the Lord’s errand. JTC says, “Considerable time may have elapsed, weeks or possibly months, between the departure of the Seventy and their return. We are not told when or where they rejoined the Master; but this we know, that the authority and power of Christ had been abundantly manifest in their ministry; and that they had rejoiced in the realization. ‘Lord,’ said they, ‘even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.’” Whenever I learn something new, especially if it is quite profound, there is a happiness that lasts with me for a while and I would imagine that this was somewhat how they felt. On their missions, these seventy men must have grown spiritually and come back strengthened, and that is cause for joy a...

L uke is the only gospel that records the calling and sending out of the Seventy by the Savior. Much of what Jesus says in the calling of the Seventy on missions in Luke 10:1-16, is similar to what He says when he called the Twelve on their missions in Matthew, but there are a few points that are interesting to consider. First, the Seventy are sent out “two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” We all know that no one can be in two places at once, so there has to be a delegation of the work. The IM quotes Elder Boyd K. Packer as teaching, “Each of the Seventy has had conferred upon him the apostolic authority. … The Seventy go where the Twelve, limited by their number, cannot. Seventies are scattered across the world, as they were in the early days of the Church.” The IM continues, “The Seventy today are called to be ‘traveling ministers,’ while deacons and teachers and elders are appointed to b...

A fter I wrote about Jesus being the Good Shepherd the other day, I looked out the window at work and across the little street was a field full of sheep. I immediately thought about what I had just learned about and thought that it was so interesting that there were a bunch of sheep standing right in front of me, when I hadn’t seen them there ever before. I pointed it out to the woman standing next to me, and she said that all the sheep will follow each other around in a line until they got to a ditch. Then they would stop and look at the ditch until one of them jumped over it and then turned around to the others like “look at me stupids, just jump over it.” I thought, “how could Jesus possibly compare us to sheep, yes, we are just as vulnerable, but sheep are so stupid, and we are so intelligent.” Then I remembered the teachings of the prophets that our knowledge and understanding of the gospel and universal and eternal truths is so minimal that we are no ...

Assuming that Jesus is still speaking to the Pharisees and other people surrounding Him, He begins another metaphor with Himself as the Good Shepherd. The IM interestingly notes that “Jesus’ declaration that He was the Good Shepherd should be understood against the backdrop of the Old Testament concept that Jehovah was the Shepherd of Israel, the divine caretaker of His people. By declaring Himself to be the Good Shepherd, Jesus was testifying again that He was Jehovah- the fulfillment of messianic prophecies.” That was something that I hadn’t considered. This analogy might be more difficult to understand for us because most of us haven’t really dealt with sheep very much in our lifetime, so there’s really not a lot where I can apply my own personal experience. Jesus begins the analogy saying, “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the doo...

T he Pharisees think the whole thing about a man who was born blind being healed by Jesus is just a con, so they demand to see the parents of the newly-seeing man, and we can see that they have a very interesting relationship. Let me just start off by asking, why was the man begging? I don’t know if it was a cultural thing where anyone with a disability would leave their home to beg because that’s just what happened at that time, or if he went to beg and then came home to sleep at his parents’ house at night or if his parents kicked him out altogether and made him fend for himself. I can only compare it to our society today and how I would react as a mother. I couldn’t imagine sending my son away if he was blind, I would be making him lunch and tucking him in at night. I’m not saying that my way is right, but it makes me wonder what their relationship was if he was begging during the day. The parents arrive at the interrogation and is asked, “Is this...

While still in Jerusalem, “Jesus passed by, (and) he saw a man which was blind from his birth.” First, the IM points out that one of the most common miracles that Jesus performed was to heal the blind. Having poor eye sight myself, I can totally understand how blindness could be so much more common anciently. My vision was corrected for years with glasses and contacts, and now I’ve had lasik and it was amazing, but if I had lived in Jesus’ time, I probably would have been considered blind, as well as many people that I know and love. The IM comments that Isaiah had predicted that the Messiah will come and give sight to the blind. Secondly, when we are given an account of those who Jesus heals, we aren’t usually given much on the background of these people, but interestingly, we are told specifically that this man was born blind, which gives a very different perspective on this story in a few different ways. The disciples, seeing the blind man, asked Jesus,...